Edict of Serdica

[4] The Edict implicitly granted Christianity the status of religio licita, a worship that was recognized and accepted by the Roman Empire.

On 23 February 303, on the Terminalia feast, Emperor Diocletian, on the proposal of Galerius,[citation needed] issued a persecutory edict.

The edict prescribed:[citation needed] In 305, Diocletian abdicated and was replaced by Galerius, his successor, who continued persecution in the East until 311, when he granted Christians forgiveness, freedom of worship and (implicitly) the status of religio licita.

Among other arrangements which we are always accustomed to make for the prosperity and welfare of the republic, we had desired formerly to bring all things into harmony with the ancient laws and public order of the Romans, and to provide that even the Christians who had left the religion of their fathers should come back to reason; since, indeed, the Christians themselves, for some reason, had followed such a caprice and had fallen into such a folly that they would not obey the institutes of antiquity, which perchance their own ancestors had first established; but at their own will and pleasure, they would thus make laws unto themselves which they should observe and would collect various peoples in diverse places in congregations.

Finally when our law had been promulgated to the effect that they should conform to the institutes of antiquity, many were subdued by the fear of danger, many even suffered death.